America Ferrera’s first real showbiz experience was something of a letdown. At 16, after a decade of acting in school plays and drifting off each night to Hollywood dreams, she was cast in a Disney Channel movie about a junior high school dance team with the somewhat hilarious name of Gotta Kick It Up. At first, she was thrilled. “I love to dance, so I couldn’t believe I was getting paid to just dance all day. And there were four other girls in the cast, so that was fun. And you know the way you think when you’re a teenager: Disney Channel today, Oscars tomorrow!” she says with a laugh. But a few weeks into filming, she had what she describes as “a mini nervous breakdown.” “I just felt really empty,” she says. “I had achieved my dream, and it wasn’t totally fulfilling. I still had school problems, and I still had boy problems. My life was still my life. I guess I had been waiting to be turned into a swan.”
Seven years later, chatting over a dinner of fish cakes, fried rice and chicken curry at a Thai restaurant in New York’s SoHo, Ferrera is no longer waiting for her swan moment. That sort of magical transformation doesn’t happen in real life, she’s realized—not even in Hollywood. But about a year ago something far better occurred: She was cast as an ugly duckling, and that lovable four-eyed, brace-faced duckling has made Ferrera into a big, big star.
Some things just catches me by surprise. One thing that I didn’t know is that President Barack Obama can sing! During a speaking engagement last night at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, the President sang Rev. Al Green‘s classic, “Let’s Stay Together” which implies – – “hey, vote for me in 2012! AND WE’LL STAY [...]
Breaking news! FEDS just shutdown file-sharing website Megaupload accusing the site of multiple copyright infringement. They said that this was not in any way connected to #SOPA and #PIPA. Yesterday, Google, Wikipedia and other famous sites like Craigslist have joined a blackout to show its position on the bills currently in congress. If you look [...]
When controversies about the previous Philippine tourism slogan of “Pilipinas Kay Ganda” hit the web about being a copycat, rip-off artists and the like… we all had to admit our fault. Yes, it really did look like a blatant copy of the Polish tourism logo. You would think, we would learn from it. But we [...]
I have always loved great speeches. What’s better is a great speech delivered by a great man. One of the speeches that I have always loved is Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 speech which is now known as the I Have A Dream Speech. Since we are celebrating MLK day here in the US today, [...]
